True Internet Data Center Co., Ltd., (True IDC), one of the largest data center platforms in Thailand, is seeking about US$ 2 billion bank loan to build a new data center near Bangkok, sources told Bloomberg today. The proposed loan would be divided into three tranches comprising US$ 1.8 billion denominated in US dollar, and the balance in Thai baht.
Talks with banks are still at an early stage and details might change for the proposed five-year loan, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Last month, IDC broke ground on its seventh data center located at Northern Bangkok and announced continuous investment of over 6 billion baht.
In recent months, Thailand has emerged as a hot destination for data center invesments. In June, Thailand approved US$ 1.99 billion (66.3 billion baht) of new investments mostly in high tech sectors like artificial intelligence (AI), advanced electronics, and clean energy, led by East Asian companies.
In May, the country approved 958 billion baht (US$ 29 billion) of investment projects, including TikTok System (Thailand) Co.’s planned expansion of data center infrastructure.
Thailand is courting billions of dollars of investment in AI and hyperscale data centers. Among tech giants already in Thailand are Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
True IDC did not respond to a request for comment.
True IDC, a subsidiary of Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, operates four data centers in Thailand and one in Myanmar, according to its website. It claims to have the largest power capacity in Thailand at over 150 megawatts.
Thanasorn Jaidee, Managing Director of True IDC previously said during the seventh DC groundbreaking: “According to IDC, investments in AI and GenAI in the Asia-Pacific region will grow fivefold, reaching a value of 11 trillion baht by 2029, representing an average annual growth rate of 38.4 per cent. However, a major challenge for businesses today is accessing AI Hyperscale-level infrastructure capable of fully supporting advanced processing. Our goal is to build a world-class data center to support such infrastructure.”